Rebel Play

Do media platforms and genres have specific gender appeal? Why don't more women play console games?

I reviewed a Youtube video article by a female gaming journalist called Leigh Alexander. Currently the news director at Gamasutra, and formaly an associate editor of kotaku. She also maintains a blog called Sexy Videogame Land.
With regards to the question that was set by Rebel Play, Leigh Alexander a highly experienced journalist in this field provides an array of possible answers to both parts of the question.
Since its inception gaming has been the domain of males, and today the majority of video game designers & players are still male. As a result their is gender prejudice on both sides. This prejudice is created by a number of factors, which includes the notion that console games mainly consist of the action & sci-fy genres, which inturn are all blood & guts. Due to this women feel that the patriarchal hegemony in the game design industry (and because of their subsequent content matter), inevitably means that console games aren't for them. Delving deaper into this we find out why. Leigh Alexander states that at present "the game settings don't appeal to women, the gameplay doesn't appeal to women and the characters don't appeal to women". Femine attitudes towards game console characters and how they are marketed shows a distinct animosity to the current game console market. With an example of this being Lara Croft, one of the most famous gaming characters ever created. She was a hyper sexualised female character, and at times was even marketed posing topless, something that has become the norm for this market. Sexual marketing also applied to the box art of many other games in this sector. This made women feel that this type of game genre was not for them, and they felt excluded from the game console market altogether. In essence women feel that the soft porn marketing and the highly sexualised portrayal and actions of some game console characters, must be greatly reduced and replaced by positive female role models, in order to successfully engage a larger female market.
There are encouraging possibilities that a large female congregation is waiting for the oportunity to engage with the game console market if the above mentioned changes are made. Over the last ten years the casual games maket has seen a 74% increase in female consumers. Women in their 30's have replaced men aged 18-34 as their main customers. According to Leigh Alexander if "New settings, new gameplay innovations, new character archetypes, and new approaches to design", occure. Then their is a major possibility of crossover consumerism. The biggest possibility of this happening involves far more women becoming directly involved in the industry. Another solution to engaging the female gender, is a long term plan which involves targeting the younger female market, which creates the possibility of girls "growing up with a greater appreciation of the medium". Thus in future more willing to engage in the games console market. Finally if the games console industry stopped being gender specific, and started targeting people instead of the individual male & female genders. Then they may create more success for the console industry in the future, by engaging all genders as a single collective.